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William Congreve
| birth_place = Bardsey, England | death_date = January | death_place = London, England | occupation = Playwright, Poet | nationality = English | period = 1693–1700 | genre = | subject = | movement = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | signature = | website = }} William Congreve (24 January 1670 - 19 January 1729) was an English poet and playwright. Life Overview Congreve was born in Yorkshire. In boyhood he was taken to Ireland, and educated at Kilkenny and at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1688 he returned to England and entered the Middle Temple, but does not appear to have practised, and took to writing for the stage. His 1st comedy, The Old Bachelor, was produced with great applause in 1693, and was followed by The Double Dealer (1693), Love for Love (1695), and The Way of the World (1700), and by a tragedy, The Mourning Bride (1697). His comedies are all remarkable for wit and sparkling dialogue, but their profanity and licentiousness have driven them from the stage. These latter qualities brought them under the lash of Jeremy Collier in his Short View of the English Stage. Congreve rushed into controversy with his critic who, however, proved too strong for him. Congreve was a favourite at court, and had various lucrative offices conferred upon him. In his latter years he was blind; otherwise his life was prosperous, and he achieved his chief ambition of being admired as a fine gentleman and gallant.John William Cousin, "Congreve, William," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 94. Web, Dec. 27, 2017. Youth, family, education Congreve was born at Bardsey, near Leeds, where he was baptised on 10 February 1669-70 — a fact first ascertained by Malone (Life of Dryden, i. 225). His grandfather, Richard Congreve, was a cavalier named for the order of the Royal Oak, whose wife was Anne FitzHerbert. The family had been long settled at Stretton in Staffordshire. Congreve's father was an officer, who soon after the son's birth was appointed to command the garrison at Youghal, where he also became agent for the estates of the Earl of Cork, and ultimately moved to Lismore.Stephen, 6. Congreve was educated at Kilkenny school, where he was a school-fellow of Swift, his senior by 2 years. He was entered at Trinity College, Dublin, on 5 April 1685, where, like Swift, he was a pupil of St. George Ashe. Swift, who earned his B.A. on 13 Feb. 1686, resided at Dublin till the revolution. They were therefore contemporaries at college, and formed an enduring friendship. Playwright Congreve, on leaving Dublin, entered the Middle Temple, but soon deserted Law for literature. His 1st publication was a poor novel called Incognita; or, Love and duty reconciled, by Cleophil, written "in the idler hours of a fortnight's time." His 1st play, the Old Bachelor, was brought out in January 1692-3. It was written, as he says in the dedication, nearly 4 years previously, in order to "amuse himself in a slow recovery from a fit of sickness." Dryden pronounced it to be the best 1st play he had ever seen; and the players, to whom he had at first read it so badly that they almost rejected it, soon changed their opinion. The manager granted him the "privilege of the house" for 6 months before it was acted, a then unprecedented compliment.Stephen, 7. Its great success prompted him to produce the Double Dealer, first performed in November 1693. This met with some opposition, and some ladies were scandalised. Queen Mary, however, came to see it, and was afterwards present at a new performance of the Old Bachelor, when Congreve wrote a new prologue for the occasion. Dryden had generously welcomed Congreve, who helped him in the translation of Juvenal (1692), and to Congreve Dryden now addressed a famous epistle, in which he declares Congreve to be the equal of Shakespeare, and pathetically bequeaths his memory to the care of the "dear friend" who is to succeed to his laurels, a bequest acknowledged by Congreve in his preface to Dryden's plays (1718). Dryden also acknowledges (in 1697) Congreve's services in revising the translation of Virgil, in which he was also helped by Addison and Walsh. Betterton and other players revolted from Drury Lane, and obtained permission to open a new theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields. It was opened on 30 April 1695, the first performance being Congreve's Love for Love. The brilliant success of this comedy was acknowledged by a share in the house, on condition of Congreve's promise to produce a new play every year. On 12 July 1695 Congreve was appointed by Charles Montagu, afterwards earl of Halifax, "commissioner for licensing hackney coaches," a small office, which he held till 13 Oct. 1707. His next production was the Mourning Bride, acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields, "for thirteen days without interruption," in 1697. The success saved the company, though the tragedy is generally regarded as an unlucky excursion into an uncongenial field. Johnson always maintained that the description of a cathedral in this play (act ii. sc. 1) was superior to anything in Shakespeare Boswell, 16 Oct. 1769, and Life of Congreve). In the same year Congreve was attacked by Jeremy Collier in a View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage. He replied in a pamphlet called Amendment of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations (from his 4 plays). Although the critical principles laid down by Collier are not such as would be now admitted, he was generally thought to have the best both of the argument and of the wit. Nor can it be doubted that he was attacking a serious evil. Congreve felt the blow. His last play, the Way of the World, was produced, again at Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1700. Congreve declares in the dedication that he did not expect success, as he had not written to suit the prevailing taste. The play was coolly received, and it is said that Congreve told the audience to their faces that they need not take the trouble to disapprove, as he meant to write no more. The play succeeded better after a time; but Congreve abandoned his career. In 1705 a new theatre was built for the same company by Vanbrugh, and Congrove was for a time Vanbrugh's colleague in the management. He did nothing, however, beyond writing "a prologue or so, and one or two miserable bits of operas" (Leigh Hunt) (the Judgment of Paris, a masque, and Semele: An opera, neither performed). Later life From this time he lived at his ease. In 1710 he published the first collected edition of his works, in 3 volumes, octavo. A promise by Tonson to pay him 20 guineas on publication is in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 28275, f. 12) He was commissioner of wine licenses from December 1705 till December 1714. At the last date he became secretary for Jamaica. According to the General Dictionary Lord Halifax gave him a "place in the pipe-office," a "patent place in the customs of £600 a year," and the Jamaica secretaryship, worth £700 a year. He is said to have been latterly in receipt of £1,200 a year. Swift, in his verses on "Dr. Delany and Dr. Carteret," says that :﻿﻿Congreve spent on writing plays :And one poor office half his days. But Swift when writing satire did not stick to prosaic accuracy. Congreve, at any rate, was universally flattered and admired. He is always spoken of by contemporaries as a leader of literature, and had the wisdom or the good feeling to keep on terms with rival authors. He never, it is said, hurt anybody's feelings in conversation. Swift, while at Sir W. Temple's in 1693, addressed a remarkable poem to his more prosperous friend, and always speaks of him with special kindliness. Many meetings are noticed in the Journal to Stella. It is odd that Congreve was almost solitary in disliking the Tale of a Tub (Monck Berkeley, Literary Relics, p. 340).. Steele dedicated his miscellanies to him, and when assailed by Tickell in 1722 addressed his vindication (prefixed to the 'Drummer') to Congreve as the natural arbiter in a point of literary honour.Pope paid him a higher compliment, by concluding the translation of The Iliad with a dedication to him. Pope was anxious to avoid committing himself to either party,. and Congreve's fame was sufficient to make him a worthy representative of national literature..Stephen, 8. Swift (in a letter to Pope, 10 January 1721) repeats the famous reply of Harley to Halifax when Congreve was afraid of being turned out by the tories in 1711— :Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Pœni, :Nec tam aversus equos Tyrià Sol jungit ab urbe. Voltaire visited him in his last years, and was disgusted by his affectation of desiring to be regarded as a gentleman instead of an author, a sentiment which is susceptible of more than 1 explanation (Lettres sur les Anglais). Congreve was a member of the Kit-Cat Club (Spence, Anecdotes, p. 338), and according to Pope and Tonson, he, Garth, and Vanbrugh were the "three most honest-hearted real good men" of the poetical members (ib. p. 46). Lady Mary W. Montagu addressed a poem to him of rather questionable delicacy. Congreve was evidently a man of pleasure, and petted in good society. His relations to Mrs. Bracegirdle, who always acted his heroines, and spoke a prologue or epilogue in his plays, were ambiguous, but in any case very intimate. He became in later years the special favourite of the second Duchess of Marlborough, and was constantly at her house. He had, according to Swift (to Pope, 13 Feb. 1729), "squandered away a very good constitution in his younger days." In 1710, as we learn from the Journal to Stella, he was nearly blind from cataract, and he suffered much from gout. Probably his bad health helped to weaken his literary activity. Like Byron, he seems to have combined epicurean tastes with the "good old gentlemanly vice," avarice. An attack of gout in the stomach was nearly fatal in the summer of 1726 (Arbuthnot to Swift, 20 Sept. 1726). He had gone to drink the waters at Bath in the summer of 1728 with the Duchess of Marlborough and Gay. He there received some internal injury from the upsetting of his carriage, and died at his house, in Surrey Street, Strand, on 19 January 1728-9. The body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber and was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. A monument was erected in the abbey by the Duchess of Marlborough, with an inscription of her own writing, and a hideous cenotaph was erected at Stowe by Lord Cobham. It was reported that the duchess afterwards had a figure of ivory or wax made in his likeness, which was placed at her table, addressed as if alive, served with food, and treated for "an imaginary sore on its leg." The story, if it has any foundation, would imply partial insanity. Congreve left 10,000l., the bulk of his fortune, to the duchess, a legacy of 200l. to Mrs. Bracegirdle, and an annuity of 20l. to Anne Jellatt, besides a few small sums to his relations. Young says (Spence, p. 376) that the duchess showed him a diamond necklace which she had bought for 7,000l. from Congrieve's bequest, and remarks that it should have been better if the money had been left to Mrs. Bracegirdle. Writing Besides his plays, Congreve wrote minor poems, congratulatory and facetious, which Johnson (followed by Leigh Hunt) declares to be generally "despicable." He wrote a letter upon humour in comedy, published in the works of Dennis, to whom it was first addressed, he contributed to the Tatler the character of Lady Elizabeth Hastings (the famous phrase, "To love her is a liberal education" — attributed to Congreve by Lady Hunt — occurs in No. 49, by Steele). Congreve has been excellently criticised by Hazlitt, Lectures on the Comic Writers, Charles Lamb, On the Artificial Comedy of the last Century, and by Leigh Hunt, in whose essay the others are reprinted. Hazlitt's judgment that Congreve's is "the highest model of comic dialogue" has been generally accepted, with the occasional deduction that the strain of his perpetual epigrams becomes tiresome. Hunt, a sympathetic and acute critic, admits that Lamb's famous defence of Congreve against the charge of immorality is more ingenious than sound. The characters, instead of being mere creations of fancy, are only too faithful portraits of the men (and women) of the town in his day. Congreve's defects are to be sought not so much in the external blemishes pointed out by Collier as in the absence of real refinement of feeling. His characters, as Voltaire observes, talk like men of fashion, while their actions are those of knaves. Lamb's audacious praise of him for excluding any pretensions to good feeling in his persons might be accepted if it implied (as he urges) a mere "privation of moral light." But, although a "single gush of moral feeling" would, as Lamb says, be felt as a discord, a perpetual gush of cynical sentiment is quite in harmony. His wit is saturnine, and a perpetual exposition of the baser kind of what passes for worldly wisdom. The atmosphere of his plays is asphyxiating. There is consequently an absence of real gaiety from his scenes and of true charm in his characters, while the teasing intricacy of his plots makes it (as Hunt observes) impossible to remember them even though just read and noted for the purpose. It is therefore almost cruel to suggest a comparison between Congreve and Molière, the model of the true comic spirit. The faults are sufficient to account for the neglect of Congreve by modern readers in spite of the exalted eulogies—not too exalted for the purely literary merits of his pointed and and vigorous dialogue—bestowed upon him by the best judges of his own time and by some over-generous critics of the present day.Stephen, 9. Critical introduction by Henry Austin Dobson The poetical remains of Congreve, especially when considered in connection with those remarkable dramatic works which achieved for him so swift and splendid a reputation, have but a slender claim to vitality. His brilliant and audacious Muse seems to have required the glitter of the foot-lights and the artificial atmosphere of the stage as conditions of success; in the study he is, as a rule, either trivial or frigidly conventional. A translation of the third book of Ovid’s Art of Love has the merit of being still readable; but his Pindaric Odes and Pastorals, such as that to the King on the taking of Namur, and The Mourning Muse of Alexis, can now only detain those who are curious in the class of poetry which flourishes under the patronage of royalty. The opening stanza of the lines "On Mrs. Arabella Hunt Singing" has a suave and delicate movement:— 'Let all be hushed, each softest motion cease, Be every loud tumultuous thought at peace, And every ruder gasp of breath Be calm, as in the arms of Death: And thou, most fickle, most uneasy part, Thou restless wanderer, my Heart, Be still; gently, ah! gently leave. Thou busy, idle thing, to heave: Stir not a pulse; and let my blood, That turbulent, unruly flood, Be softly staid; Let me be all, but my attention, dead. Go, rest, unnecessary springs of life, Leave your officious toil and strife; For I would hear her voice, and try If it be possible to die.’ This is beautifully and musically said. The second stanza is not so good; and in the third the charm is altogether loosed by the absurd appearance of Silence, draped in ‘a melancholy Thought,’ and insecurely seated upon ‘an ancient Sigh,’—an intrusion from which the reader barely recovers in time to recognise a strange, and we think hitherto unnoticed, anticipation of the last lines of Keats’ famous ‘last sonnet’ in the concluding couplet of the whole:— ‘Wishing for ever in that state to lie, For ever to be dying so, yet never die.’ In his songs and minor pieces Congreve is more successful, though he never reaches the level of his contemporary Prior. ‘Amoret,’ which we quote, sets a tune which has often since been heard in familiar verse; and the little song ‘False though she be to me and love’ has almost a note of genuine regret.from Henry Austin Dobson, "Critical Introduction: William Congreve (1670–1729)," The English Poets: Selections with critical introductions (edited by Thomas Humphry Ward). New York & London: Macmillan, 1880-1918. Web, Feb. 18, 2016. Quotations 2 of Congreve's turns of phrase from The Mourning Bride (1697) have become famous, albeit frequently in misquotation: *"Music has charms to soothe a savage breast," which is the first line of the play, spoken by Almeria in Act I, Scene 1. (The word "breast" is often misquoted as "beast", and 'has' sometimes appears as 'hath'.) *"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned," spoken by Zara in Act III, Scene VIII. (This is usually paraphrased as "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned") Congreve coined another famous phrase in Love for Love (1695). *"O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell." Recognition Congreve was buried in the south aisle of the nave in Westminster Abbey. He has a marble memorial, a sarcophagus by Francis Bird, near his grave.William Congreve, People, History, Westminster Abbey. Web, July 11, 2016. 2 of his poems, "False Though She Be" and "A Hue and Cry after Fair Amoret", were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900."False though She be". Arthur Quiller-Couch, editor, Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1919). Bartleby.com, Web, May 13, 2012. "A Hue and Cry after Fair Amoret". Arthur Quiller-Couch, editor, Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1919). Bartleby.com, Web, May 13, 2012. Publications Poetry *''Poems Upon Several Occasions. London: Jacob Tonson, 1710; Glasgow: Robert & Andrew Foulis, 1758. *''Poems. London: J. Nicholls, 1779. *''Congreve's Poems'' (edited by Montague Summers). Soho, London: Nonesuch Press, 1923. Plays * The Old Bachelor: A comedy (1693). Edinburgh: Martin & Wotherspoon, 1768. * The Double Dealer: A comedy. London: Jacob Tonson, 1694; Dublin: Philip Crampton, 1744. * Love for Love: A comedy. London: Jacob Tonson, 1695. * The Mourning Bride: A tragedy. London: Jacob Tonson, 1697; Glasgow: Robert & Andrew Foulis, 1751. * The Way of the World. London: Jacob Tonson, 1700. *''Incognita; or, Love and duty reconciled. London: Buck, 1692; London: R. Wellington, 1713. Translated *Homer, "Hymn to Venus", in ''The Minor Poems of Homer. New York: A. Denham, 1872. Collected editions *''The Works of Mr. William Congreve: Consisting of his plays and poems''. (3 volumes), Birmingham, UK: printed by John Baskerville for J. & R. Tonson, London, 1761. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III. *''The Dramatic Works of William Congreve. (2 volumes), London: S. Crowder, C. Ware & T. Payne, 1773. ''Volume I, Volume II. *''The Comedies of William Congreve'' (introductions by G.S. Street). (2 volumes), London: Methuen, 1895; Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1895. Volume I, Volume II. *''William Congreve'' (introductions by William Archer). New York: American Book Co. (Masterpieces of the English Drama), 1912. *''Comedies by William Congreve'' (edited by Bonamy Dobree). London: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1939. **(edited by Anthony G. Henderson). Cambridge, UK, & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. *''William Congreve: Complete Plays'' (edited by Alex Charles Ewald). New York: Hill & Want, 1956. *''The Complete Plays of William Congreve'' (edited by Herbert John Davis). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:William Congreve, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 22, 2013. Poems by William Congreve #On Mrs. Arabella Hunt Singing See also * List of British poets * List of English-language playwrights * Restoration comedy References * Klekar, Cynthia. “Obligation, Coercion, and Economy: The Gift of Deed in Congreve’s The Way of the World.” In The Culture of the Gift in Eighteenth-Century England, ed. Linda Zionkowski and Cynthia Klekar. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009. *Macaulay, Thomas Babington. The Comic Dramatists of the Restoration. London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1853. * Wikisource, Web, Dec. 27, 2017. Notes External links ;Poems *Congreve in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900: "False though She be," "A Hue and Cry after Fair Amoret" *Congreve in The English Poets: An antholog: "Amoret," Song: ‘False though she be to me and love’ * William Congreve at PoemHunter (2 poems) *William Congreve (1670-1729) info & 3 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830 *William Congreve at the Poetry Nook (65 poems) ;Books * *The Library of William Congreve at the Internet Archive ;Audio / video *William Congreve poems at YouTube ;About * William Congreve in the Encyclopædia Britannica * William Congreve at NNDB. *William Congreve at Poets' Corner (Westminster Abbey) *William Congreve at the Literature Network. *William Congreve biography at Imagi-nation.com. *Biography at Theatre History *William Congreve (1670-1729) at Luminarium. *''Life of William Congreve'' by Edmund Gosse * William Congreve at Find a Grave * Congreve, William Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:1670 births Category:1729 deaths Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey Category:Alumni of Kilkenny College Category:People from Yorkshire Category:17th-century poets Category:18th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets